Here's A Three Minute Guide To Magic: The Gathering

Collectible card games are pretty familiar to video gamers these days. But most of them all owe their lineage to one giant: Richard Garfield's classic, Magic: The Gathering.

Getting to grips with paper Magic can be a pretty daunting experience, but fortunately there's a simple way. It's Magic Duels, a free-to-play digital version of the game, and we've got a quick primer to get you started. And prizes!

If you've never come across Magic: The Gathering before, or if you've played other CCGs and you're looking for something with a little more depth and variety, Magic Duels -- available on Steam and other platforms -- is a great way to start.

We've put together a little video explaining how it all works:

The Kotaku Magic Duels Challenge: Week 1

To help those exploring the world of Magic for the first time, Wizards of the Coast and Kotaku Australia have partnered to run a competition where you can win some in-game rewards to help you along your way.

For this week's challenge, all you have to do is complete the story mode for Gideon's campaign and you can win 500 in-game coins, which can be redeemed for cards or booster packs.

To claim your reward, simply post 100 words or less about your victory, along with a screenshot, in the comments below. You'll also need to link your Customer Service ID (CSID). You can find that by going to the Customer Service tab in Help & Options from the main menu.

More Prizes!

Over and above the weekly prizes over the next three weeks, we'll also be giving away 8 amazing participation packs -- chosen from your weekly entries. We're specifically looking for entries that show dedication and or a little fun! . Each of the physical product prize packs includes:

Comments

Hearthstone ruined this classic for me. Being able to choose your targets when attacking is what MTG was always missing IMO. It was also frustrating as hell getting the balance of mana right so you don't draw too many but have enough for your spells... Restarted many a match because either my opponent or I draw too much, or not enough mana in the initial turns. Not fun.

Gideon's Campaign definitely felt like the easiest of the 5 Origin campaigns, but he was also the only Origin planeswalker who's origin was unknown before the Origin set/Magic Duels game, so it was a good crash course in his origin story if you didn't want to read the short story.

This brought backs memories from the mid 90's when I used to play a lot. My favourite victory came in the harpy duel. I had five creatures out on the table, I had knocked off the flying creatures on their side, prepared my strategy then used my glorious charge to finish them off. The +1/+1 meant that it didn’t matter who blocked, I had the victory in hand. I started this challenge to win a set of cards to play with my daughter but this challenge has me wanting to play more Magic Duels. Well played Wizards, well played.

I recently got into Magic after recommendations from friends over the years, and while I don't play Standard, the Magic Duels story does a great job of teaching you the basics about keywords, combat, and everything you need to know to get immersed in the world of digital cardboard. Simple instructions and AI make learning a lot less daunting than it has been previously.

I'd love to see Commander implemented, but for now, everyone should feel the joy of being let loose from the tutorial's instructions for the first time and really giving it to the bosses of the campaign.

Very recently, some of my friends introduced me to Magic when they did a Booster Draft a couple of weeks ago, and let me get involved, and whilst I enjoyed it, I was kind of lost, because they tutorialised me very briefly and basically. Playing Gideon's campaign definitely cleared things up for me, and I really enjoyed it!

I've dabbled with Hearthstone before, and conversely to another commenter's opinion, I really like the fact that you can't directly attack creatures with creatures, as it adds another layer of depth and strategy to the game.

This has been a great way to get started in Magic. Its something i have been wanting to get into for some time, but the rules, number of cards and knowledge of the fan base has been very intimidating.
After playing Magic Duels, im now going to start playing the cardboard version of the game